Glen Carlou top of the leaderboard at Syrah du Monde, France

05/2022 Mike Froud Leave a comment

THREE wines of South Africa placed among the Top 10 at Syrah du Monde 2022, held in the Northern Rhône Valley of France. This was on a par with Australia and just one fewer than France, however it was a Cape Shiraz – the 2019 vintage of Glen Carlou Syrah of Paarl – that the judges ranked No. 1. Pity that it’s pretty much sold out, but no wonder…

Talk about consistency! Glen Carlou’s 2019 Syrah was also among the Top 12 in the 2021 Shiraz SA Challenge and scored 95/100 in the International Wine & Spirit Competition (UK) of the same year. Demand was such that the cellar moved on to the 2020 vintage.

Whereas another of South Africa’s success stories had not yet been released from the winery at the time of writing… In addition to earning a gold medal at Syrah du Monde, the Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Shiraz 2018 scored 95/100 in the 2022 International Wine Challenge (UK) and was the top-rated South African wine at Mundus Vini 2022 in Germany.

All in all, the judges sampled 261 wines from 23 countries over two days and awarded 85 medals, 32 gold and 53 silver. France won most gold medals (nine), followed by Australia (six) and then South Africa (four), ahead of Italy (three), Spain and Portugal (two each). For the full results, click here.